In distributed restoration algorithms (DRA), and particularly the self healing network (SHN) restoration of a telecommunications network due to failures in the network, automated restoration of nodal failures could not be achieved. For example, in the SHN scheme as defined by W. D. Grover in U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,835, if a particular node fails, the nodes adjacent thereto would begin a sender/chooser arbitration. One of these adjacent nodes becomes a sender while the other becomes a chooser. However, the failed node could not respond as a chooser to the adjacent sender node. Alternatively, the failed node, if acting as a sender, would not send out any restoration signatures or messages to its adjacent chooser node. Accordingly, the SHN scheme would eventually time out without anything happening. In other words, restoration would not take place. To get a more thorough understanding of SHN, the reader should peruse the disclosure of the '835 patent, incorporated by reference herein.
A need therefore arises for a scheme of restoring traffic when there is a failure in a node so that traffic that would pass through that node could be restored.